Employee Mindset
You Don’t Know You Have It
I developed the Employee Mindset early. Before I got my first real job at 25, I worked 6 jobs over the course of 14 years. I was always a good employee (and I’ll indulge myself and say I still am) because I was, then, unknowingly, everything they wanted in an employee. I worked many long, hard, and dirty hours for them. I was satisfied with productivity for productivities sake and did not meddle in areas of the business that they did not share with me – not for lack of interest but from ignorance. I let my mind be fertile soil for their suggestions. I watered what they had planted and nurtured the Employee Mindset to better build their dreams. And I was excellent.
Only recently, after many discussions with my fiancé, did I realize that I had the Employee’s Mindset and that it wasn’t all my bosses told me it was cracked up to be; but is rather an irrational mindset ignorant of critically important context. Identifying I had such a mindset came from the realization that I was addicted to being productive; sometimes for no other reason than for productivity’s sake. My bosses taught me the most valuable skill was to be constantly producing; and the default quality of that production is perfection unless told otherwise. To cope with these demands, the Employee Mindset convices the individual to be satisfied with constant motion; otherwise, experience the self-inflicted anxiety of idleness – the chief sin an employee strives to overcome.
And this achieved their goal beautifully; we worked tirelessly building their dreams and secured for them healthy yearly profit while remaining cheap annual Costs. Our heads remained down and our hands kept constantly in motion. Our minds, being preoccupied by production of the highest quality and of the fastest pace, never saw the painting from the stroke. And so we never knew we were only the tools manifesting the plan. We never knew the cycle of continuous improvement that built the empire. We never saw the strategy being developed or the priorities being listed. We were sent to accomplish and returned for orders.
I began to realize all of this when my fiancé would talk about the future and I found it very hard to keep up with her in conversation. She would ask me questions like “What is your ideal future lifestyle?” and “When do you want to buy a house?” and other questions that concerned a time other than the immediate present. And I would struggle to answer. Of all the ways they had ever taught me to think, and of all the things they had ever told me to think about, the future was never a concern. The Employee’s Mindset has only to be diligent about what’s at hand. It needs only to be concerned with finding and completing hard work or doing what it’s told. Speaking with her made me realize I almost never thought more than a step or two out. And then I came to the overwhelmingly obvious realization that what I keep myself busy with now doesn’t get me to where I want to be in 20 years when I finally think of it.
Thankfully I’ve realized this now and have kept an open mind to the ideas / suggestions from those skilled in the entire progress cycle, including my fiancé and other experienced professionals. I’ve learned there are 3 other parts involved in getting to where you want to be in life aside from action-taking (what those with the Employee Mindset are typically good at). These are the steps to build a desirable future.
| Stage | Description |
| 1. Dream | Define your perfect future |
| 2. Strategize | Identify the daily use of resources to achieve your perfect future |
| 3. Habitualize | Regularly take action to achieve the goal |
| 4. Review | Evaluate performance, redefine where relevant, improve where possible |
For the North East, Blue Collar, Church on Sunday’s crowd who were taught hard work, productivity, and obedience, #3 will be absolute cake. Once we bite into that, we never let go: it smells as delicious as our old addiction; productivity for productivity’s sake. However, the other steps may take some time to work through but there’s no replacement to planning for the future. Practice skills outside the Employee’s Mindset; don’t only be satisfied by mindless toil and endless motion. Use that same Employee Mindset stamina to dream outlandishly, plan strategically, habitualize uncompromisingly, and review objectively.
Comments for Context
The idea for this article comes from living with, and studying, my fiancé for two years. I am always amazed at how quickly she does everything; especially the important stuff. With my old Employee Mindset, I wanted to know how to do things quickly like her because if I could do that, then I could be even more productive which would bring me even more non-sensical satisfaction. So I found how she did it.
She evaluates the priority of what she has to do with repsect to what she wants to do. She alwasy does what she has to do first, but since she wants to do what she wants to do more, she finds the fastest way through the thing she has to do so she can start doing what she wants to do sooner. She’s quite successful with this method; she can frequently be found doing what she wants.
It’s simple and it makes sense; of course she wants to do what she wants to do. So I started writing about how to do things quickly but I had a hard time justifying why. From my old Employee Mindset, it made no logical sense: do things faster to get more done…? For what purpose?! That’s when I discovered I pursue productivity for productivity’s sake – a pillar of the Employee Mindset. When considered in a work-related scenario, the Employee Mindset is so strange because it’s not the Employee Mindseted individual that reaps the rewards of their hard work. Where does that mindset even come from and why do people even have it if it benefits them almost nothing at all? From where does the brain learn to be so satisfied with production that it never thinks “toward what end do I labor?” It makes no sense. It didn’t make sense until I dug into my past and started thinking about where I began.
The people who taught me that concept, which I held in such constant regard, were the same people who I worked for. They offered me that idea and I bought it. I took it with me wherever I went and cared for it as my own. I bought it because I believed it would make me better. It did, but by their definition. I built incredible things for them. But now, better, by my definition, will be much more rewarding.
Dream. Strategize. Habitualize. Review.
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